Hybridization of agriculture vehicles using a ride-on lawn mower

This paper discusses new powertrain concepts for outdoor robotic systems, which have to work energy autarkic over several hours under workload. The main idea is to separate the powertrain components into different devices (combustion and electric engines) according to functional and workload criteria, as well as device power characteristics. For demonstrating and validating the concept an existing ride-on lawn mower based on a combustion engine was modified by integration of two electric engines towards a hybrid machine. The achieved results show significant improvements fuel consumption and mowing power.